With the Looking Glass add-on on the Mozilla Firefox browser, users need to activate the extension to experience various effects, including text formatting for specific keywords and transforming headlines on three web pages related to the Alternate Reality Game. However, the unexpected appearance of the add-on, coupled with the description 'MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS,' has raised concerns among many Firefox users.
Mozilla Rekindles Controversy by Reusing Add-On
“... this surprised me a bit. The add-on could be better used with a description stating it's part of research rather than 'MY REALITY IS JUST DIFFERENT THAN YOURS.' It's not a meaningful message to convey to users,” shared a Reddit user.
Mozilla is facing user opposition for secretly installing an add-on without user consent. Although the company didn't directly apologize for this, they extended the extension through the browser's 'studies' feature, activated by default during installation.
“Our goal is to provide users with a customized experience we've created with Mr. Robot to engage users in an interesting and unique way. We always listen to user feedback, and although the extension/add-on sent to Firefox users doesn't collect any data and must be activated by gamers beforehand, we've received feedback from some of our users, stating that the experience we created has raised significant concerns,” said Jascha Kaykas-Wolff, Mozilla's Marketing Director.
Currently, Mozilla is reusing the controversial Looking Glass add-on, and users can download, enable, or disable the extension on Firefox instead of secretly installing it. The Looking Glass code is also available in the public repository for users to review.
If there are unknown addons on Firefox, take the initiative to remove them. Follow the steps on how to uninstall Firefox addons here: How to remove Firefox addons.
If you don't want to participate in future Mozilla 'experiments,' simply open the Preferences window in your browser. Then click on 'Privacy & Security,' scroll down until you find the 'Firefox Data Collection and Use' section, and uncheck the option 'Allow Firefox to install and run studies.'
Firefox addons offer various useful features. You can download YouTube videos using Firefox addons, eliminating the need for supporting software like IDM or browsers like Coc Coc.